The Balloon

[Anomalocaris]

I wonder how many spy satellites, high-level spy planes, and drones the US has over China at any given moment.

there is no international agreement over exactly how high up a country’s sovereignty over its own airspace extend.    but every country agree it does not extend out of the atmophere into lower earth orbit.    if it did, then the space age will immediately come to an end because no earth orbiting satellite would be possible unless the owner of the satellite secure permission from every country the satellite can pass over.    

For satellites in polar orbit, that would be literally every country in the world. 

however, most countries think sovereign air space extends up at least as high as aircraft can fly,  so other people’s planes can’t just mosey on in whenever it pleases them.    And some planes can fly considerably higher than 60,000 feet.

So the upshot is this:

If this balloon was indeed a spy balloon, then china violated international law and international convention if she did indeed send it into US airspace on purpose. 

china and US can, however, freely send spy satellites over each other’s territory anytime each side wish, and that would be entirely consistent with international law and convention.